Lucky 7
by Ethena
Summary: All Sasuke wanted to do was find someone to help him train when his family was busy. When he met Naruto and Sakura, though, they had different plans. Before he knew it they were dragging him into something that would change his world, and all of Konoha.
1. New Story

Author Notes:

**WARNING TO ANYONE WHO THINKS THEY WANT TO REVIEW: **The short version: Before reviewing please stop and think if your review can be helpful to the author. If you don't think so please don't review.

The longer version: I dislike pointless reviews. By pointless I mean they have nothing I can get out of them. Examples of that kind of reviews are those asking me to update, those telling me they love my story, and those telling me they hate my story.

If you do want to review, please first think about what you might want to get from someone reviewing your story, though that does come with a warning as I know some people do just want reviews even if they don't say anything. Suggestions are always welcome, as are questions. If you really can't think of anything and still really want to review (I'm not holding my breath here) I do have a few prompts/questions at the bottom after the end notes.

Even just telling me what works and what doesn't is helpful, as I can go look at those parts and try and figure out what's good or not, but it has to be specific. As an example: 'He smiled as on Sasuke's other side Sakura put her head on the counter and giggled silently.' This works (my opinion) because we definitely see how Sasuke's attempts with acting cold are going, along with Sakura's reaction, and the fact that she doesn't want to hurt his feelings by just laughing out loud. It also ties them to their surroundings, the stand, and is not one of the typical reactions found in fanfiction.

Now that the first chapter has been here for a few days, a few brave people have stepped up, some more tentatively than others, and left some examples. You can go look at them as well to get some ideas. So far they've been pretty good.

If anyone still doesn't get this, flames are not good reviews. I've run into many a story where someone asks for criticism and all they get is insults. Please understand that this does not give you the right to act mean, and all you'll be doing is making yourselves look childish.

Also, I will not have any polls, and if there are any parings they are not up for debate. Please don't ask for them. One reason I don't accept reader suggestions for things like this is I like to have a nice long setup for any parings I have, and I don't like much romance in my stories. Another is this story is already planned out and outlined, though it gets somewhat muddled after the first two thirds. I will, however accept suggestions for pranks, and replace the ones I have if I feel they're good enough, as well as use any ideas for improving what's already written. I will credit, of course. Which pranks are good or not are all my opinion; so don't get mad if you think of something and I don't use it. If you think they're good enough write a one shot about them yourselves.

New Story

Sarutobi sat at his deck, wearily chewing on the end of a pipe. He knew that he should have been working on the mass of paperwork on his desk, but at the moment he couldn't focus, his eyes sweeping over the words without taking any of them in. Instead his mind kept going back to a certain little boy who's been acting strange recently.

Most people hadn't noticed the change, which was both surprising and not, knowing who the boy was. Naruto, quiet little Naruto who tiptoed around people, who he'd often seen run home crying, had suddenly gotten a determined look in his eyes, and started practicing at the training ground near the park. Sarutobi hadn't found anything that could have caused the change; just that it was like one day he went to bed defeated, and the next he woke up determined. He hadn't had any unpleasant encounters recently, for which he was grateful, but that didn't mean that something couldn't have slipped past him; an enemy ninja, for example. He'd prefer to believe that Naruto had just decided that he'd had enough bullying, but he ran a ninja village, and was therefore obligated to be suspicious.

Sarutobi made a motion with his hand, and a masked man landed before him.

"How has he been?" He asked the Anbu he had put to watch the boy the moment he realized something was wrong.

"The same as before," the man started. "He is still practicing daily, and seems to have become more vocal. Yesterday he stood up to Higa Miyako when she refused to let him into her store, and left to train right after. Besides that he has not met with anyone suspicious, nor has he sent or received any letters. And I have had his blood, scent, and chakra system compared as you requested, as well as checked for any illusions, and everything seems normal. If someone is controlling him, it is not from the outside."

Sarutobi dismissed the man, slowly pulling his crystal ball in front of him to look at the boy himself. He hadn't thought so. That left only one option, one that he didn't want to think about. In any case, he thought as he watched Naruto practice with kunai, he'd have to ask the boy himself to be sure.

-Ramen Break-

The boy the Hokage was currently watching threw another kunai at a target, watching as the hilt hit the top edge, and the weapon bounced, landing somewhere behind. He picked up the next kunai.

This one landed slightly short, but the point was in the ground. He whooped, and picked up another one, this time aiming about a foot to the left, with three bounces on the ground, before hitting a tree. Truthfully he was bored. Pretending to be the real Naruto was one of the worst tasks as far as he was concerned; he'd much rather be staking out Sasuke like the other clones, and the real Naruto, were doing. Instead he was here, doing tricks with kunai, and looking determined.

"Aarrrg! I'll definitely get it this time! And then I'll be the best ninja ever, you'll see!" he yelled for the benefit of his audience after he gathered up the scattered kunai, and resumed his tricks.

There were two people watching him. One was an Anbu, which was really annoying because he was _always_ watching. He did feel kinda bad for making the old man worry enough to put an Anbu on him, but he wasn't going to cry anymore. The Hokage would just have to learn to live with the new Naruto, and hopefully get the Anbu off of him soon. He was seriously in the way. He'd thought about chucking a kunai as far as he could to have it land near to the Anbu, but that would make him seem frustrated, and he had at least another hour in him before he'd have anything to be frustrated about… besides the stalking Anbu.

The other person, though, he was glad was there. Hyuuga Hinata peeked out from behind a tree and watched him practice. She'd been here earlier that day, but left once he got there hoping to come back when he got bored and left. Only when she came back he was still there, determined as ever, and she'd become curious. He had hoped she'd notice him.

Last time he was sure had been a fluke, and he couldn't afford to try to piece it together in a way that might not work, so instead he had taken initiative, and sought her out instead. He'd even offered to train with her when he got there, but the girl was far too shy. Still, this task didn't require a concrete relationship. All he needed to do was keep sucking, keep having big dreams, and staying determined through it all.

He didn't even have to fake the determined part; he was determined… about looking determined, so that Hinata wouldn't feel so hopeless about herself. After all, if he could become strong, so could she. With that in mind he continued to do his best to look like he sucked at throwing kunai.

-Ramen Break-

A blonde girl sat casually on a low tree branch near the academy playground wearing a sunny, pink and white dress. Its two colors danced together in swirls, looking almost alive whenever the wind caught the fabric as she waited for her friend to appear. She knew he would probably be late; he had to sneak past a very stringy 'parent' after all. Finally spotting someone appear around the corner, she jumped down, carefree grin on her face.

"Hey!" she waved him down as he approached, and looked him over. "Not bad, though the hair and clothes don't match."

"Well excuse me!" The boy looked a little older than her, had black hair, and wore a yellow and orange tie-dye shirt with white shorts. "I like the way I look. Figures you'd be picky, though." he grumbled. She laughed and led him hand in hand to the sandbox, shrugging off her shoes and socks, and grabbing a plastic shovel while he did the same.

"Ah, the joys of childhood," she dug through the sand with her fingers, suddenly a little annoyed. "How was this so enjoyable again when we were little?"

"Oh, come on. This is only the fourth day, you can't have run out of ideas on what to make yet!" the boy started building a tower.

"Sandcastles, sandcastles, maybe a few moats… more sandcastles."

"Sakura, you're the most unimaginative person ever." The boy complained, but the grin on his face revealed his teasing. "Where's your youthful enthusiasm; those flames of youth that keep the creative passion flowing and-"

"Shut up," she laughed and hit him on the head with her shovel. "But he'd better show up today. If not I might just break into his house and give him a piece of my mind about where kids our age should be hanging out."

"He only comes here to bother the academy kids for training, anyways."

"I can give him a piece of my mind on that too." She shot back, continuing to bicker good naturedly as they worked in the sand.

They had waited for almost two hours, having built one castle, and one really, really tall tower, when Sakura suddenly looked up, startled, then broke into a wide smile.

"Naruto," she whispered, and the boy glanced up to see what had caught her attention. Another boy, around six, with short black hair and wearing dark shirt and shorts was approaching. He looked a little sour, hesitating, as if he was unsure whether or not to keep going towards the practically deserted playground, or just turn around and head home. "Finally. I'm gonna go greet him." Sakura stood up, brushed the sand off, and scurried toward him.

She walked up to him, ignoring his hilarious attempt at a scowl when the noticed her, and looked at him innocently.

"Hello, wanna make sandcastles with us?" She gestured towards Naruto as he tried to reach the top of her tower with a flag, but the boy merely stared at her dress, looking a little sick. "Are you okay?"

"Why's it moving like that?" the boy hid his face turning a little green as she looked down at herself.

"What, my dress? It's pretty like this. It used to be polka dot, but that was boring." She ran her hand over her skirt, watching as the swirls practically ran through her fingers. "I'll turn it off if you play with us." She offered.

"No thanks, I have to train so I can become a ninja, like my brother." He moved his hands off his face, and looked over her head, trying to avoid the dress. "He's an Anbu, the youngest ever."

"So, why'd you come here then?"

All the admiration drained from his face in a moment, and the sourness returned. "Because, everyone's too busy to help me train, so I wanted to ask someone from the academy if they could show me anything. But there's no one here."

Naruto, who had joined them in the middle of the explanation, started laughing, "That's because Sakura kicked them all out."

"They were being annoying!" the girl snapped at him, turning pink. "So you're gonna be a ninja, then? Naruto and I are gonna be ninja too. What's your name?"

The boy looked hesitant for a moment before replying. "I'm Sasuke. You can do illusions?" he glanced back at her dress.

"Yeah, that's easy… I'll show you some if you play with us." she pleaded, pouting.

-Ramen Break-

That afternoon found the three of them ordering ramen at the Ichiraku ramen stand. After a bit of playing in the sand, the three of them showed off whatever ninja skills they had, most surprisingly that Sakura could use chakra, and Sasuke was surprised to find them both far better than expected; that and the fact that they weren't ninja yet.

"We're kind of young to become ninja." Naruto answered when Sasuke voiced his thought, sipping on his noodles. "Sure there are some people who become ninja at ridiculously young ages, but I'd rather be a kid for a while first."

"Why? Can't you be a ninja and a kid at the same time?"

"Not really. Lots of ninja missions are really boring from what I've read." Sakura explained. "For example, lots of genin missions are like shopping, farming, and babysitting. And once you make chuunin missions are patrols and escorting people, oh, and delivering things. I say they're luring us under false pretences."

"So instead we wanted to be pretend ninja," Naruto distracted Sasuke, who stared at Sakura, doubtful look on his face. "We've already done a few fun missions, and I'm sure we'll be famous soon. We just need a third member, so that we have a full squad, just like real genin."

Sasuke straightened a little, quickly glancing at Naruto, "So, uh, are you looking for someone right now?"

"You wanna join?" Naruto glanced at Sasuke, as he stared at him with all the excitement of a little kid. Then he seemed to remember himself, and shifted into some bizarre variation of the Uchiha 'This-isn't-worth-my-time' mode. Naruto choked down a snicker as Sasuke tried to answer in a disinterested affirmative. He smiled as on Sasuke's other side Sakura put her head on the counter and giggled silently. "Though, since you're an Uchiha you'll have to take an anti-stuck-up-ness test."

"A what?" the bizarre expression morphed into genuine confusion.

"There are lots of people who can't have fun, and because of that don't want anyone else to have fun either," Sakura explained, a large grin still on her face, "And chances are, if they can't pass the test, they won't survive on our team for long. Those kinds of people tend to congregate in old traditional clans, of which the Uchiha are one. If you want to join our squad you have to prove that you're not one of them. We wouldn't want you to go insane and start raving about the standards of ninja education or something, after all."

"…Alright." he agreed hesitantly, already starting to regret it when the pair glanced at each other, grinning.

-Ramen Break-

An hour later, as he sat in an alleyway with a bucket of flour next to him, Sasuke wondered if it was worth it. On the one hand, the two of them were really good, and it would be good for him to spend time with some peers that weren't so obviously beneath him in ability. On the other, though… the 'test' turned out to actually be a prank, and Uchiha didn't do pranks. Then again, Uchiha also didn't back out of a challenge, though the pair seemed insistent on reminding him that he could quit at any time. They wanted him to dump the flour on someone without being caught, and somehow he suspected that all their schemes would be something like this.

A shadow fell on the wall across from him, and he looked up to find Sakura watching him from the roof above, the evening sun turning her dress to reds and oranges, and tinting her blonde hair red at the edges.

"Problem finding a target?" she asked, jumping down next to him, "Or is it just the idea of pulling a prank?"

"You guys tricked me." He crossed his arms, looking away, trying to appear angry.

"Tricked you?" she asked incredulously as she sat down next to him, "What exactly did we trick you about Sasuke?"

"You said you'd be doing missions that aren't boring, and instead you do pranks."

"What would you consider to be interesting mission material for pre-genin? Would you have agreed if all we did was play hide-and-seek and the like instead?"

"…Maybe," he lied, knowing full well that he'd have seen that as just a waste of time.

"And besides, it's not maturity that keeps the Uchiha from pulling pranks."

"Hm?"

"You'll figure it out when you're older. Hopefully soon though…" she mumbled the last part. "More importantly, you should get used to it, because everyone here tricks everyone else at some point or another, and if they want to hurt you, you can get in trouble really fast."

"Yeah, I know; 'Never let your guard down,' 'Anyone can be an enemy.' I've heard it from my family often enough."

"Here's something I bet they didn't tell you though," she smiled ironically. "They're ninja as well, so they're not an exception to this rule. Can you be sure that they won't deceive you?"

"My family wouldn't trick me!" Sasuke snapped back at her.

"Relax; I don't mean it in the way that they'd kidnap you or hurt you. I'm talking about things like going behind your back about something because they think it's what's best for you… well; maybe we're a little too young for things like that?" She thought for a moment and Sasuke wondered where she got an example like that from. "Maybe, let's say your brother gets hurt really bad and has to stay at the hospital, and they don't want you to worry, so they tell you he's just out on a long mission. Things like that."

"Oh." Sasuke couldn't help but think about all the long missions Itachi's done. Were they doing that? "I guess…"

"Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust them, but you should always try to know what you're getting into first. In a place like this weighing your risks is the best you can do; you never know, after all."

Sasuke didn't argue, instead thinking for a while, and glancing at the sky. "It's kinda late. Can we postpone this to tomorrow?"

"No time limit." she shrugged, "You can take however long you want. We'll be at the playground again tomorrow.

"Think about what I said!" she yelled to him as he disappeared around the corner.

"Wow, Sakura, that was quite some speech. Think it'll get through?" She glanced up to see Naruto leaning off the building she was on before, and scrunched her nose.

"He's a genius. Might take him a few days, sure, but I expect to see him properly paranoid soon enough. Hopefully he'll get the rest of that as well." She looked out of the alley. "Now, we still have a few hours until people start worrying." She stood up, and made the dress swirl again, "How about we do something that's not boring?"

End Notes:

1) I started writing this quite a while ago, so this deviates from canon around the time Sakura pretended to defect. What I was doing during this time was setting up the whole story, so the plot is more or less set, though it is flexible enough that if I get an interesting idea from someone I might include it.

2) I update pretty rarely, and, while reviews are a nice motivator (though be sure to read the note at the top), that does not mean they will have an impact on my posting speed. This story is not that high on my list of priorities; it's mostly on the 'I'll write it when I'm not busy' schedule.

3) Sasuke might seem like he got attached to them really easily, but really he just wants someone who can help him get better, who he's been looking for for a really long time, to help him reach that place where his father would see him as equal to Itachi, and Itachi would spend more time with him.

4) For my use of Japanese, I'm actually fairly proficient with the language, which makes me really nitpicky, even when the Japanese in the story isn't that bad. As an example, there's a really good Naruto fanfic called Hakumei, (as long as I ignore the attack names, as that's something I haven't bothered to learn) but I had to stop and facepalm a little when Sasuke called his opponent 'oujosan' (princess) (and a kind of rude way of saying it at that) when what he really wanted to say was 'ojousan' (lady). Yes, one little 'u' makes a world of difference.

Mostly I will not be using the endings, even in the anime they're really weird, though I think that their village is kinda casual in that respect, or at least the kids are. Example (again): in Naruto the standard way of calling someone seems to be 'name' (or 'name-kun' for girls), the endearing way is 'name-chan/kun,' and hardly anyone uses 'san,' though I don't really remember that that well. Really, leaving off an ending should be either rude or really intimate, which it definitely isn't. The only one I will use is 'sensei,' as that one is fairly confusion-free (for anyone who actually wants the confusion, it's also used for doctors and anyone who's really good at what they do, regardless of whether they teach or not).

I will also be using shinobi, ninja, and kunoichi. A little about these words: 'shinobi' is the 'noun' form of the verb 'shinobu,' which means to sneak around or to endure. The 'shino' of that word is a single kanji, the same one that makes up the 'nin' in 'ninja' the other half of ninja is the kanji for 'someone' or 'person' (usually read as 'mono' when not really attached to anything), making up 'sneaking around person.' I can't quite figure out kunoichi right now (need to make a note to look it up), as the language thing that came with my computer likes to separate 'kuno' and 'ichi' into two different words, though there is a slight chance that everyone spells it wrong, I kind of doubt that.

I will use ranks: genin, chuunin, jounin, anbu and so on, even though I do know their translations (lower (junior) ninja, middle ninja, upper (elite) ninja, anbu is some sort of acronym for an actual ninja-y organization) (actually the 'nin' part can be either ninja or person, and without seeing the actual kanji I can't be sure which, but that's part of the wordplay fun). They are well known here, and far less cumbersome.

I also prefer the Japanese technique names, though I use 'technique' and 'jutsu' interchangeably. I'll also be using 'ninjutsu,' 'genjutsu,' and 'taijutsu.'

I might also use 'jiji' for Naruto with the Hokage, as I kind of like it, though that's iffy, as I can just use gramps instead. I haven't looked it up so I don't know how correct it is. Any other words will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

Prompts:

Can you tell what's going on with Naruto and Sakura, do you think they're the same people or someone else entirely?

Is the timing of the story good, or is it too fast/slow? Maybe too even? If you think it's good point out where you think it's best or why you think it's good; I don't want just a one word answer. If you think it could be better, explain how.


	2. New Chapter

New Chapter

Sasuke hurried out of his house, making sure that he had his supplies with him. He'd thought a lot about what Sakura had told him the day before, and was a little confused. She said that everyone tricked others; was she implying that they could be trying to trick him? But that couldn't be; if they were she wouldn't have warned him, though maybe she told him so he'd think they weren't tricking him when they actually were, or… In any case he'd have to watch them more to see.

For now he would go with their plan. While he was an Uchiha he was still a kid and putting up with a few pranks was tolerable enough if that meant he would be getting stronger in return.

Once again when he reached the playground he found it practically deserted and a pair of kids his age at the playground, but they didn't seem to be Naruto or Sakura. These two looked like siblings, both with orange hair and freckles up to their ears, but at the same time they looked a little familiar. The girl had a pink dress with yellow polka dots patterned painfully close together that seemed to jump every once and a while, and the boy would have been orange from head to toe if not for the black gloves and shoes, and the fuzzy white stripe going down the belly of his shirt.

"Sasuke!" the girl waived him over when she noticed him, and he approached carefully.

"Sakura?"

"Please tell me you came to save me from the sandcastles." She made a face and bickered with the boy who he supposed must have been Naruto.

"You guys can use henge?" Sasuke asked, surprised. Sure, he'd heard of the technique from his family, but usually it was only taught in the second year of the academy. Despite being an Uchiha he couldn't do it yet. Actually, he couldn't even draw chakra, which was infuriating, since his brother managed that at four.

"Henge? We're not using henge. Just a wig and makeup." Sakura explained, peeling her hair off her scalp a little to show him. That did make more sense to Sasuke; henge was pretty chakra intensive after all. "You want a disguise too?" she grinned, looking him up and down appraisingly. Sasuke would have thought about it, as having a disguise would be a good idea if someone saw him, an Uchiha, pulling pranks, but something about the hungry look in her eyes unnerved him, and he declined quickly, instead getting straight to business. At least until Sakura squealed, knocked him over, and started another game, which Naruto eagerly joined. He sighed. They might be better than him at ninja arts, but at least he was fairly certain that he was the most mature of the three.

-Ramen Break-

After running around all morning and having ramen for lunch again the pair had finally calmed down and let Sasuke continue on with his plan. He'd prepared quite well for this. It might have been a prank, but it was still a ninja test, and therefore something to take seriously. It was really quite a good test, though Sasuke suspected that most of that was an accident as the pair didn't seem to have the subtlety for it. Not only did it test his ability to read into rules, as he did the day before, it tested planning, the ability to improvise with weapons (in the case that he hadn't postponed it), stealth, and, in them making this in the form of a prank, it tested his willingness to train with them… or at least it could have; the way they were looking at him they likely only wanted to see a good prank and make sure he didn't spoil their fun. No matter, he planned to enjoy it as well and led them to the playground.

Without whatever it was that Sakura did, the playground was once again full of children, and Sasuke looked around for someone in particular, smirking smugly as he found him. Ryuuya Otogi, an academy student four years older than him, liked to pretend that he was tough. Only 'pretend', of course, because he showed off against kids at least two years younger. He had gone after Sasuke for a while, trying to show off how good he was against an Uchiha, but then Itachi beat him up for hurting his little brother. Sasuke still wished he hadn't done that. As nice and smart as his brother was, he either didn't seem to get how bullying worked, or wasn't thinking too well that day, as, while Otogi stopped fighting with him, he and his gang just started insulting him after that, going after him even more. Sasuke still wasn't sure how to deal with that, but at least by now he was smarter, and strong enough to protect himself from them. Still, revenge would be sweet.

While Naruto and Sakura went to watch from the monkey bars, he casually climbed up the stairs near the slide, and set the bucket down. Not bothering to glance around, it would only give him away in a mission like this, he quickly tied a length of rope to the handle, tipped the bucket over the edge, and secured it by looping the rope over the handle above. That done, he went down the slide, making sure the rope stayed taut, and secured it again under the slide, tossing a few Ryo under the bucket as bait, and made his way toward the bushes some distance away though in good view of the trap. Moments later he was joined by the pair.

"That was pretty good, but you should have camouflaged the weight of the bucket. That would have alerted a well trained ninja." Sakura critiqued as they waited, and Sasuke felt his heart leap. Advice! He was already getting advice, and he wasn't even in yet. Usually any academy kids he'd ask for anything would just explain what he asked about, and then glare jealously if he was even close to as good as them, and his family wasn't much better. All he ever got from his father was that disappointed look and the rest of the clan was only helpful in taijutsu, and, he supposed, the sharingan, but as he didn't have it yet he had no idea. Anything else would be 'your technique needs work,' or 'brilliant, as the clan head's child should be,' which was about as useful as the jealous glares.

Even Itachi tended to teach just by showing and expecting him to copy, but then again, his brother had activated his sharingan so early he probably learned almost everything that way anyways. He would occasionally correct Sasuke when he helped him, but again, that was mostly restricted to whatever he was willing to show him, which tended to be taijutsu and weapons.

"Yes, and next time take more care where you set up; there's nothing stopping someone from climbing up the slide and seeing that, so I suppose it's all luck now." Naruto added. "You aiming for anyone in particular?"

"Otogi." Sasuke told them, pulling a few pebbles out of his bag, and Naruto's face scrunched up.

"I remember him. He was an ass." Sasuke smirked at the comment, and tossed a pebble at the older boy and another near the trap. As Sasuke expected, Otogi was either stupid enough that he'd pay attention to the pebble, rather than the direction it came from, or greedy enough to grab the money he noticed first, but the moment he bent down Sasuke let go of the rope, and watched as the boy startled as the first of the flour fell, before the bucket hit him, surrounding him in a cloud of white as the whole playground had gone silent.

Otogi slowly stood up, seething, and glanced at the bucket, then the rope leading to the top of the slide, before clambering to the top, shouting obscenities all the way, and the group in the bush tried hard to stifle their giggles as they snuck around to another part of the bushes.

That… had actually been fun, Sasuke realized. They were all grinning now, watching as Sasuke's target tried to figure out what the hell had happened. The bucket had pulled the rope completely away from the bush, and while a better ninja could figure it out, especially since the rope had flattened the grass leading from their old hiding spot… Yeah, Otogi was never going to find that.

Otogi, though, didn't even bother, instead glowering at the first kid he noticed. Sasuke felt a little bad for him, but it wasn't his problem anymore. Or at least he thought so until he heard really obnoxious laughter from a redhead dressed in orange on the other side of the playground. He glanced around to see that Naruto had vanished; and he hadn't even heard him move!

"Ha, ha! You look like a ghost!" Naruto gloated in between laughing, as the target let go of the other kid to focus on him instead. "What kind of idiot falls for something like that!"

Otogi stared at him murderously for a minute as he kept on laughing, before exploding.

"YOU'RE DEAD, BRAT!" Suddenly Naruto's amusement was replaced with panic, and he scrambled off hurriedly, with Otogi chasing after him.

"C'mon." Sakura tapped him on the arm and led him away. "Don't worry about Naruto. He'll catch up with us."

She led him to one of the academy training fields, not quite vacant as it was still the middle of the day, and sat down to wait, but by the time Naruto had arrived ten minutes later the field had inexplicably emptied.

"What took so long?" Sakura teased as he jogged up to them, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Otogi has decided to run a few laps around Konoha." He gave them a thumbs up. "Such youthful enthusiasm!" He ducked under the shoe Sakura threw at him. "Anyways, on to Sasuke." He sat down, joining their circle. "That wasn't very nice with leaving the other kid to take the blame, but I suppose you couldn't have done much without getting caught. For future reference though, a prank that ends badly is worse than no prank at all."

'Future reference?' Sasuke blinked, "Then,"

"You've got my vote. Sakura?"

"Well," She glanced at him doubtfully. "I'm still not convinced of your sincerity in our cause, but I suppose there is potential. I'll agree for now, but I'll be keeping an eye on you." She eyed him suspiciously, before smiling. "Welcome to the team."

-Ramen Break-

A few days later Sasuke was playing hide and seek with a pair of girls, one in an orange dress, and the other in dark blue with white stripes that looked yellow unless you were looking right at them. By now Sasuke had figured out the appearance patterns of the pair, though Naruto's gender switch caught him a little off guard.

He was also starting to figure out their schedule; which generally was play in the morning, lunch (usually at Ichiraku's, but today Sakura had insisted on going for sushi), followed by training wherever they had agreed upon during lunch. The playground was the only place to find them, though, as they tended to disappear after that. Surprisingly, Sasuke didn't mind playing the first half the day away. Not only was training with them better than whatever he could get from the academy kids, but he found he actually enjoyed a lot of the games.

The day after his test the two of them had sat down and explained the rules of their group to him. First off, their lack of a teacher (the only thing that differentiated them from their sought after genin team appearance now that he'd joined) was disappointing, but was somewhat solved by picking random chuunin for a day and naming him sensei. They'd shadowed their chosen sensei once so far, though he suspected that 'Raidou-sensei' knew they were there and thought they were playing some kind of a game.

Second, their team operated on trust, and because they had just met him, there couldn't be much of that yet, so while he was officially their teammate, he wouldn't really be one until they'd spent some time with each other, overcome some difficulties, seen each other at their worst, and it deteriorated into some kind of drama from there. When they had calmed down they explained that they also didn't count as his teammates until he could trust them, and so was free to leave at any time if he felt uncomfortable. It was a little touching to Sasuke, though also creepy how they had suddenly matured by a decade or two from the way they usually acted, but he supposed they had to have some moments of sanity to get that good.

Third, the pair had agreed that his usual clothing had had to go. He'd tried to explain to them that he was wearing was appropriate ninja clothing as they had to be stealthy, to which Naruto had explained just how easy it is to hide in nearly black clothing in a crowd of brightly dressed people, green foliage, or even shadows, which are rarely ever even dark. And the Uchiha fan on his back wasn't really helping the anonymity.

That and apparently on their team clothing had to have meaning or reason or whatever, as they explained to him, though they conveniently left out the reasons they were wearing things that made them stand out just as much as, if not more than, black would. Still, Sasuke couldn't wear clan clothing unless he was trying to identify with his clan while with them, which as he learned during his test was a pretty big clash of ideals.

They had taken him shopping for normal clothing after that, as he didn't own any himself, which had been quite an experience as well. For one thing, Sakura, who was terrifyingly good with makeup, was terrifying when putting said makeup on other people, and Naruto had promised to show him the basics so he wouldn't have to go through that again. The end result was quite astonishing, at least to him, as he looked almost like an Inuzuka, rather than an Uchiha. For another, the actual trip ended up being that day's training, as they stole almost as much clothing as they bought, and at least half of that was bought with stolen money. When they did buy things though, it was only one or two things per shop, with a trip in between each to drop things off in their storage hideout. They had made at least thirty trips to and fro, which Sasuke had calculated to be around two laps around Konoha.

Currently he was wearing a bright red shirt and white pants, slightly reminiscent of the Uchiha fan, to tell them that while they didn't approve of his clan, he wasn't just gonna let them cut it out of him. Well, that, and this way they'd expect him to stand out in the forest during their game.

The moment he was out of sight of anyone, he took off the red shirt, flipping it inside out, onto its dull-green-with-light-yellow-sleeves side, before putting it back on, and following with his pants, which had become tan. That done he ran off for the other side of the park, near the academy, joining tree other boys playing ninja that he'd noticed while looking for Sakura their previous game, and waiting.

This he'd learned from Naruto, who, in a previous game, had taken a bit of a job handing out flyers and candy for a woman running a sale, and Sasuke had walked by him twice, and even gotten a piece of candy, before he'd realized that it was Naruto. He hadn't even bothered to change his appearance, or hide, though Sasuke supposed it was due to that that he was so hard to find. He was expecting him to be hidden. Really, both of them were almost suspiciously good ninja whenever they wanted to be. It almost made him feel uneasy, though he supposed that he was probably just jealous.

He was still very good, especially compared with other normal kids his age, he noted, as one of the boys in his cover tripped over his shoelaces, and he took a moment to glance around for Sakura. She'd be able to recognize him by voice, he was sure, unlike himself with Naruto the other day, and he made sure to keep one of the kids between himself and the way he'd come from whenever possible, completely missing the blue and yellow in the tree closer to the academy.

Sakura smiled as she watched Sasuke playing with other kiddies his age. This had been fun for a while, but it was becoming slightly annoying now. It was a little astonishing that he could be so innocent and simpleminded, but unfortunately everything had to come to an end sometime, and Sasuke wouldn't get a chance to simply grow out of it. No, it was time to get on with their plan, and give the boy a little push rather than just hinting things. But first, she pulled out a kunai and casually cut through a rope nearby, relishing the screams of the two boys who were now dangling in the air by their legs.

"Some ninja you guys are, falling for such an obvious trap!" she yelled at them from her perch, having discretely stashed the dagger moments before. "Looks like it'll be the kunoichi protecting Konoha from now on!" she laughed at them.

"That's not funny! Get us down!" yelled one of the kids just as the only grounded boy aside from Sasuke yelled, "That was a lucky shot, that's all!"

"Lucky is what you'll be if you make chuunin at this rate." She shot back grinning.

Sasuke, deciding he was caught anyways, helped the pair down as the last kid continued to argue with Sakura.

-Ramen Break-

"When did you set up that trap?" Sasuke asked Sakura as they walked over to the sushi place Sakura had chosen. Naruto had yet to be found, but that was typical, and it was almost lunch time, so she likely just went ahead anyways.

"Well," Sakura looked the street over lazily, almost stalling, "Sometime or another." She answered vaguely. "Girls do have their secrets, you know."

"I don't think girl secrets are about that." Naruto retorted, looking sour as she caught up with them. "And leaving me behind wasn't cool."

"You'll get over it." Sakura patted her on the head, and led them inside.

After lunch they had relocated to training ground 11, despite Sakura arguing vehemently for training ground 29 as that's where Ginja-sensei was training that day. Sasuke couldn't help but feel that something would be different about today, making him nervous for some reason. He supposed that that was the sixth sense that all ninja acquired at some point, and it wouldn't stop telling him that something was wrong.

He'd sat down to stretch, using the opportunity to discretely glance around and noticed Sakura giving Naruto a look, and her slight nod in reply before they sat down as well. For a moment his heart leapt. Did they notice it as well? Or were they scheming something?

"So, Sasuke, we were thinking," Naruto started once they were done stretching, "Chakra's really important for ninjas, and you haven't gotten to yours yet, so how about we help you with that?"

"You can use chakra too?" He frowned. Naruto had never told him about that; he thought only Sakura could use it.

"Yes, well…" She turned sour.

"Naruto's got absolutely no control,"

"Sakura!"

"Whenever she tries anything it blows up in her face."

"Sakuraaaaa…"

"Oh." Sasuke relaxed again, though not completely. Something still felt wrong, and he couldn't stop thinking about all those times he'd been told never to let his guard down. It was strange that neither Sakura nor Naruto seemed to have noticed anything. Aside from the exchange at the beginning they were still acting as carefree as ever, though also somehow different.

"So, since you can't use chakra yet, how about we start with what you do know, and go from there." Sakura gestured at him, and he started telling them about the chakra theory he'd gotten from his brother one day, along with the bits and pieces he'd heard from the academy kids. He knew basically the whole theory taught at the academy by now, with a bit of advanced stuff.

Chakra was a mix of physical and spiritual energy that passed through special coils to certain parts of the body depending on the seals used. The seals also determined the technique, so they were as important, if not more, than the actual chakra, and so should be learned as early as possible. He then went through the actual seals, explaining how while easy to learn, they took a while to get down well, and, as he learned in a hint from Itachi, in some cases, though you'd have to know which ones, sloppy seals actually worked better than well made ones.

By this time Sakura had a sort of resigned expression on her face, and Naruto was staring at him with her mouth open. Slightly self-consciously he finished up explaining the techniques used for learning to draw chakra, and how he hadn't had much luck with them yet.

"Is _that_ what they teach at the academy!" Naruto asked incredulously, after a brief silence.

"Of course, what else." Sakura sighed. "Okay, Sasuke, first off, stop practicing the seals for a while, and especially not when you're first trying to draw chakra; they get in the way. Second, those techniques work differently for everyone. They help about as many people as they don't, and you might as well be trying to do a handstand while thinking about the meaning of life and death-"

"Hey, don't diss my method!"

"And seeing if that works. Third, when you do get your chakra play with a little it instead of boxing it into the seals, you can learn a lot about it that way. There's a reason sloppy seals work better at times, and you won't be able to learn it later."

"How did you learn to draw yours, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, eyeing Naruto funnily.

"The Kandama method, ugh." She made a face as Sasuke tried to remember what that one was. "It's the one where you sit still for a while, like hours, and listen to your heartbeat, along with the other noises your body makes, and try to feel things inside you. You're really just best of thinking of something on your own, though preferably something more elegant than Naruto's way." She mumbled the last part.

"Hey!"

They stood up, and once again Sasuke, who'd calmed down during this time, became on edge. Something was definitely strange about them today. The three of them had run through a few kata while he thought about it, before he just decided to just ask them about it.

"Okay, you're acting weird; what's going on with you two today?" the two gazes that found him were somehow sharper this time, the faces blanker.

"Going on? Why would we have anything going on Sasuke?" Naruto asked slowly.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked at the same time.

"Well…" he shifted back a little, nervously, then froze. He realized what's been weird; they've been moving like shinobi; he was so used to it at home that he hadn't noticed until now. "L-like I said; you guys are acting strange." How did he even know they were children; for all he knew they could be grown ninja using henge. They acted older often enough. And what did they want from him? They were far better than him, whatever their age, if they just wanted a teammate, they could find someone better. They were definitely smart enough not to just pick the first person they'd find.

"Well, there are all sorts of strange," Sakura grinned at him, but her eyes stayed focused and calculating, "But I know what you mean Sasuke. We have been acting strange. We've been acting strange for a while now, and that's not going to change. What will you do about it?"

"Yeah, you've ignored a bunch of things you'd usually have noticed if you hadn't been so eager."

"I, um-"

"Are you gonna justify it to yourself again, Sasuke," Sakura gave him a disapproving frown. "Let me guess, we're playing some sort of a game to test you, we wouldn't really do anything bad, right?"

He glanced between them as they watched him not with the innocent gazes of children, but hardened, calculating ones of veteran ninja. He turned and ran, off the training field, and through the center of the village, not stopping until he reached the safety of Uchiha compound. One of his aunts greeted him, but he just waved to her, and hurried home. He was still panting and shaking from the adrenaline when he opened the door.

His mother was there, washing dishes from lunch, and he relaxed a little again. He was safe here.

"Hello, Sasuke," she greeted him, smiling over her shoulder, "Were you out running?" she asked as he was still catching his breath.

"Where's Itachi?" He asked, nodding to her. If there was anyone who could help him figure this out it would be him.

"Your brother been asked to go on a mission at the last minute. He should be back in a few days." She turned to him, frowning. "Is everything alright?"

"Fine…" he answered, his stomach sinking. "I'll be in my room then." _Your family does it too._ He couldn't help but remember Sakura saying as he ran upstairs, leaving a worried Mikoto behind.

-break-

Naruto sat down sighing, as Sasuke disappeared into town.

"We did the right thing, I refuse to believe otherwise." Sakura told him firmly.

"I know. That doesn't mean it didn't suck. But he'll be better off, whether he comes back to us or not."

"Don't worry." She sat down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Even if he doesn't, we'll still see him around." They sat in silence for a while.

"You didn't have to tell him about my chakra learning technique." Naruto complained.

"Well," Sakura smiled, pulling off the blond wig and untying her pink hair from its short braids. "He is our teammate. He's got a right to know."

"That's not fair; next time I'm telling him about your haircut jutsu!" Sakura gasped dramatically.

"You wouldn't! You of all people, insulting a girl that way!"

"I don't know, Sakura, you seem to be asking for it." They were both lying down, giggling by now.

"How did you know the thing with Itachi was today?"

"I've my secrets as well, Sakura. But please, try to have some faith in him this time."

"I know, Naruto. I know."

End Notes:

1) Sasuke meeting them and running away just a few days later seems kind of redundant, but it's more about him learning something than really meeting them. Having him learn this is more important to the pair than to have him be part of their gang.

2) Long term missions for Itachi; who knows, could be either way, I'll leave to readers to decide whether Sasuke's parents are lying to him or not.

3) My chakra system (I love thinking these things out, I currently have more notes on how things work in my fanfic than the length of said fanfic): There are several steps to getting a technique to work.

One: molding the chakra – that takes combining the proper amount spiritual and physical energy. The chakra control in this step requires experimenting with what technique needs how much of which. Some might want more spirit or physical while others want an exactly equal amount, while still others might want just a wisp of one and a whole lot of the other.

Two: aligning – this is usually done using the handseals. Aligning it moves the chakra into a certain pattern: s(pirit)p(hysical)s(pirit), ppsp, spspss, maybe thin core of p surrounded by s. Naruto's figured out how to do this without handseals (he'll mention this later somewhere, it's not that big a deal), and of course told Sakura (she has two that she can do without), which is why she told Sasuke to avoid practicing handseals. What happens is that the handseals automatically align the chakra and after a while the ninja stops noticing what they do at all, which makes it really difficult to get that back. Naruto knew of this because when he was learning this he paid real close attention due to not knowing what's really important and what not. Pretty much he just got lucky.

Three: moving the chakra – just as it sounds, this is about getting the chakra where it needs to be for the technique to work the way it's supposed to. There isn't really any control problems with this; usually if someone says something about movement problems they really are talking about the next step. The only way there could be a problem with this is, as an example, if one tries moving the chakra to their feet and it ends up in their head instead. Problems here are only solved with medicine or surgery.

Four: completion – there are two types: simple and lasting. Simple completion is for one time techniques like shunshin, kawamiri, kage bunshin. For these techniques chakra is only drawn once, all at once, and then used. There aren't usually any control problems with these techniques on this step, though they often have parameters that need to be specified (size, amount) that can mess up the technique if they're not (like molding chakra enough for two and a half bunshin and not specifying the number would give you that half a bunshin in some strange form). Lasting is for healing, chakra control exercises, and getting around on vertical surfaces and water. These take a constant, slight, drain on the chakra. If someone mentions problems with chakra movement they're usually talking about problems here. There's also techniques that can use either. These are things like henge, and many elemental techniques. Using henge as an example here, using the simple method will give a person the technique for a certain amount of time, then cancel it automatically (this is how it's taught at the academy as the lasting version can be really dangerous if someone turns into an inanimate object and then can't stop their chakra until it's all exhausted). Using the lasting version will draw the chakra as long as there's some left in the person, and stops only when the person wants it to stop. The lasting version is slightly more difficult as it takes constant control to keep molding and outputting the chakra.

The academy teaches all its ninjutsu in the simple type, and all its chakra control exercises in the lasting type.

Sealing works slightly differently. The molding step is the same; the aligning and moving are combined into one step in the actual drawing out of the seal. How it's drawn will affect both at the same time. The completion step is not simple or lasting, but is still divided into two different parts, though this time they're the 'lock' and 'key.' The lock part is drawn into the seal indicating how it will be activated, and the key part is the actual activation, usually involving chakra, but it can be just about anything up to and including the time Naruto makes a sound amplifier/storage container for stinkbombs seal that activates on farts and sticks one under each chair in a meeting room in the Hokage tower.

Reviewer Responses:

**Harmy52**: Most of these things will come up in the story, so I won't say much about them now. About the time traveling, I do have all the hows and whys of it planned out, but I'm more interested of seeing if it could be read some other way (especially after this chapter).

About Sasuke avoiding Naruto, I don't think most people would actually bother with Naruto that much. Gossip from time to time, yes, avoid and keep their kids away if he's nearby, definitely, but to constantly try and sabotage him, that takes some commitment and energy that only the most devoted of haters would have, and chances are, the Hokage would have noticed most of those people early on.

Also, Sasuke hasn't actually told anyone, and is not planning on telling anyone that he's with them. They've been obvious in their troublemaking plans, but are dangling the promise of getting stronger in front of him, which is helping him ignore the fact that it's not proper of Uchiha to do these things, but it's not something he'll want anyone else to know of. But Fugaku, I think, actually cares about Sasuke more than he lets on. He just doesn't know how to express it and has a lot of other things to deal with.

I suppose it wasn't all that clear; I didn't mean I don't like to hear whether my story is good or bad, I just don't want that to be the only thing in the review.

**scubertluver55**: What was confusing? Was it just the thing about Sakura, or were there other things as well? If it confused you chances are it confused other people, so I'd like to know so I can fix it or at least make notes on it.

You got the thing with Sakura, which I was kind of expecting, but that was intentional, so I can't do much about that. Hopefully this chapter explained it (more or less), but if you're still confused I'd like to know what about.

**DemosJones**: it's a perfectly good reason to review. I'm mostly just trying to make sure the reviews I get try to make me think of how my story is going.

The action is probably the biggest obstacle for me; looking over the plot, it does take a while for anything to actually get going, but in any case, my stories tend to start out as happy and slowly spiral downwards as they go, so the first chapter is a little too early for action. And honestly, I'm a little sick of all the time travel stories where our protagonist is left wandering through a wasteland of flame and blood before they go back.

I'm also wondering what Sasuke seems to get over. The way I see him, he was pretty much an innocent little kid before the massacre, and was only able to look cool and aloof in the academy do to genuinely being far better than the rest of the students and knowing it. With Naruto and Sakura, The first thing Sakura comes at him with is a genjutsu at a time when, in my story, he can't even use chakra yet, so right there he's already lost the genius advantage, instead being on the other kids' side of the camp, and he's far too innocent to pull off the arrogant look, especially after they offer to share. He does try, but… it's hard for the other two to keep a straight face.

Yes, Naruto and Sakura are overpowered in skill compared to their peers, which is why in the beginning I'm more focused on Sasuke, who's still a little tough because of being a genius, but he'll be going up against people older and more experienced than him, so he balances out better. Later though, when we get to more of the key enemies, Naruto and Sakura will get more action. My scale for power increases is a little different, with a sort of exponential increase in the time it takes to keep learning something, so while Sasuke quickly catches up to them (up to a certain point) they take much longer to get any better (aside from physically, where they all have a similar starting point).

Prompts:

The scene where Sasuke runs off is kinda bland, and doesn't portray the creepiness as well as I'd like. How could I improve that?

How about this chapter, did your thoughts on what's going on with Naruto and Sakura change at all?

What do you think of Sakura's 'child' personality? What's she seem like, and what seems different from the anime?


End file.
